These Are The Hardest Words to Spell in Health And Science

Ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid, anyone?

LAURA HELMUTH, WASHINGTON POST

27 MAY 2017

There are a lot of weird words you learn to pronounce and spell if you pay much attention to health, science and the environment. By the time Iceland's spectacular volcanic eruption simmered down in 2010, for instance, "Eyjafjallajokull" was as familiar as "Mount Etna".

You should hear "Papahanaumokuakea" roll off the tongue of Juliet Eilperin, who has been reporting on the Hawaiian marine national monument for years.

I asked David Fahrenthold, who covered science at The Washington Post before he moved on to less inspiring subjects, what his favorite tricky science word was, and he immediately said "pycnocline," which sounds like "picnic line" and refers to a layer of the ocean.

I hadn't heard that word before - and that's the best part about being involved in research in any way, as a scientist, clinician, journalist or reader. You're always learning new things.

I double-checked her spelling of his name (it was correct) and had a premonition: At some point, the world is going to have a global health emergency so dire and lasting that reporters everywhere, in the course of covering the disaster, will learn how to spell "Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus" without checking.

I pointed this out on Twitter and listed some of my favorite weird science words, and then Bethany Brookshire, who writes for Science News, started a science spelling bee challenge: What's the most annoying science word you've had to spell, and what does it mean?

Anyway, this is what science-philic goofballs do on Twitter all day. The spelling bee is still going on, so please share your favorites with the hashtag #scispellingbee. Feel free to be as pedantic as you like.

@laurahelmuth@bylenasun Not to nitpick but it's Eyjafjallajökull - Americans often have trouble figuring out how to type letters with umlauts (& letters like æ & ø)